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There remains still something to be said on the question
whether the soul uses deliberate reason before its descent and
again when it has left the body.
Reasoning is for this sphere; it is the act of the soul fallen
into perplexity, distracted with cares, diminished in strength:
the need of deliberation goes with the less self-sufficing
intelligence; craftsmen faced by a difficulty stop to consider;
where there is no problem their art works on by its own
forthright power.
But if souls in the Supreme operate without reasoning, how can
they be called reasoning souls?
One answer might be that they have the power of deliberating to
happy issue, should occasion arise: but all is met by repudiating
the particular kind of reasoning intended [the earthly and
discursive type]; we may represent to ourselves a reasoning that
flows uninterruptedly from the Intellectual-Principle in them, an
inherent state, an enduring activity, an assertion that is real;
in this way they would be users of reason even when in that
overworld. We certainly cannot think of them, it seems to me, as
employing words when, though they may occupy bodies in the
heavenly region, they are essentially in the Intellectual: and
very surely the deliberation of doubt and difficulty which they
practise here must be unknown to them There; all their act must
fall into place by sheer force of their nature; there can be no
question of commanding or of taking counsel; they will know,
each, what is to be communicated from another, by present
consciousness. Even in our own case here, eyes often know what is
not spoken; and There all is pure, every being is, as it were, an
eye, nothing is concealed or sophisticated, there is no need of
speech, everything is seen and known. As for the Celestials [the
Daimones] and souls in the air, they may well use speech; for all
such are simply Animate [= Beings].
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